The dark male makes his way across the snow-laden land as he tows a cart behind him. It has been months since Lurid disappeared and, with her absence, their family pack had fallen. Worry and duty had caused Eldritch to wander away from the land she had claimed in search of the pale demon. But the world had held no trace of her and the wolves he had interrogated, held no answers. So, for a time, he had swept across the continent, burning a path of righteous revenge into all those who had once brought ill will toward his family. The bodies stacked up behind him as he gleefully washed the lands clean in a baptism of blood but he still was no closer to finding Lurid.

Snow crunches underneath the wheels of his cart as he trudges onward, the silvery moonlight hangs around his shoulders as comfortably as a well-worn cloak. Steam fills the air around his face with each exhalation as his mind turns to the items that lay behind him covered from the cold with a pitch-black pelt. It had belonged to a rather imposing bastard who had crowed a hideous laugh when Eldritch had first questioned him about his missing sister. Oh, how he came to regret that later, when his paws had thick, steel stakes driven through them, pinning him to the ground while his delicate belly lay exposed to the hungry Eldritch.

Excitement swirls in the man’s chest as he remembers the screams that had been offered up in Lurid’s name as he opened the beast’s belly and forced him to watch as he unwound his organs and slowly and carefully devoured them. It had taken some time for the bastard to die and the last image he ever saw was Eldritch’s bloody maw grinning at him as he detached his still pumping heart. Now, it lays in the bed of the chart, along with several others, carefully preserved for the trip up North. While these offerings would not bring Lurid back, he hopes that maybe, whatever dark gods watch over his family, will see his offerings and give him a sign as to where she is.

On the horizon, a dark, steel object appears and pulls Eldritch from his thoughts. Steering the cart toward it, the man only stops when he is before the broken and forever beached, metal whale. Stars glitter against the inky darkness of space, causing the snow around him to appear as if diamond dust is sprinkled in with them. No clouds dare to obscure the light offered by the stars and the moon as he shrugs off the yoke. Settling the cart against the ground, he suddenly pauses as he finds a familiar scent lingering on the breeze. Softly, he breathes out, "Non potest esse.” White eyes sharply look around, his gaze attempting to cut through the shadows and find the woman he has been searching for.

After all this time… is she really here?


"Eldritch Amarix" | "Latin"

Here kitty, kitty come and tighten the leash;
How about a little discipline for the violent beast!

She wasn't sure what had her lingering around the great metal beast that Mirovis once called home, perhaps it was hope. Her missing siblings might return to this place in an attempt to find her, if they were even looking for their queen. Tonight saw the pale goddess soaking up the moonlight just outside the shelter of the ship, her coat glittering like the snow that surrounded her. Taking a deep breath, she was about to start singing when a very familiar scent wafted into her nose. Those holographic white-to-lavender eyes scanned the area, searching for the source of the smell, landing on a dark figure carrying a cart not too far away. Lurid knew that smell, it belonged to her brother, but that couldn't be right.

She watched as the dark male shrugged off his yoke and scented the air, a look of recognition sparking on his face. Lurid couldn't believe her pale eyes. Anger and relief flooded the moonlit goddess until she couldn't hold herself back any longer. If this was, in fact, her brother he would have some answering to do. Why was he not here when she returned? What had happened to him in her absence? How had it taken him so long to find her? She thought she knew the answers. Perhaps he was not here because he was looking for his missing queen, he could have been chased away by those who took over her pack in her absence, and he would have had to search the whole of Boreas to find her.

Lurid was not as angry with him as she had been with Sanguine. Eldritch had been there to help her raise MIrovis, he had shown his support of her and devotion to her. Finally, she pulled herself up from her laying position on the ground, detaching herself from the snow and making herself appear like a ghost out of the snow. Slowly she approached him, moving with all the confidence of a slowly drifting continent and the carriage of a queen.

Relaxing a short distance from him, close enough that they didn't have to yell, but not close enough that he could attack her if he felt like it. She supposed she was within lunging distance, but she could handle anything he wanted to dish out. Lifting a paw against her was not advised, as she would quickly put him in his place, but she would welcome an embrace or some other show of his missing her. "Te desideravi, frater." Her tones were warmer than their frigid surroundings but held a warning in those dual tones. Why wasn't he waiting for her to return once the metal beast was abandoned, once he couldn't find her?

Word count: 454 words. || "Talk." || 'Think.' || 'Hear.'

Note: So...Bird brain is mush at night apparently XD

Swinging machetes in a crowded room;
And now I'm coming after you!

ART

Moonlight bathes the snow-covered land, turning the pristine white powder around him into small mounds of diamond dust. They glitter and sparkle with an ethereal beauty as the wagon behind Eldritch cruelly cuts ruts into the soft surface, scaring the splendor that the land offers with his passing. When he comes to a stop and shrugs off the yoke, bringing his wagon of morbid offerings to a rest, the familiar scent of his sister tickles his nose. White gaze dart up, scouring the land as for her pale form. Finally, after all this time, Lurid breaks away from the snowy landscape, revealing herself and causing the male’s jaw to unhinge slightly as he stares at her with disbelief. She is alive.

While the signs had tried to point Eldritch toward Lurid being dead, the dark male had never once believed it because… well, it is Lurid. With his maw still slightly open, she greets him and a wicked, joyfully grin twists his lips upward as he says, “Dii meaum causam audiverunt.” How many offerings like the ones covered in his wagon had he sent up to the dark lords, pleading with them to keep her safe and bring her back to him quickly. They had heard his humble prayers and now, the Night Mother herself stands before him and he, once again, dips down into a respectful bow as he says, “The stories of your death were greatly exaggerated, dear sister.”

Once his submissive bow is given, Eldritch returns to his full height and closes the distance between them, offering his taller sister a warm hug. Oh gods, how he had missed her. He holds her for a long moment, reveling and feeling just how real, how tangible she truly is and the man allows himself to enjoy this moment. When the dark male finally releases her, he explains, “I tried to find you after everything fell apart but had no luck. So, I went to question some of the more… distance wolves we knew to see if they had anything to do with your sudden disappearance. Of course, they denied everything so I decided to use them as offerings.” As he speaks, he turns toward the wagon, ushering her toward the bed as he slowly walks toward it.

Carefully, he unties the ropes that holds the dark, flawless, obsidian pelt in place and throws it back to expose his cargo. Several hearts, livers, lungs, and kidneys have been carefully preserved and wrapped in small swathes of fur so that each one is lovingly cradled. An excited, wicked grin curls his lips as he says, “Offerings to the gods to bring you back safely. I sent many screams up to them in your name.” Turning to face her, his head tilts back slightly as he asks, “What happened sister? I was worried about you.” It is true, the dark male may be apathic to many things but the absence of the Amarix Matriarch had been disturbing to say the least.


"Eldritch Amarix" | "Latin"

Here kitty, kitty come and tighten the leash;
How about a little discipline for the violent beast!

She shared her brother's belief that the dark gods had spared her from the cold hands of death, though through her sickness she felt as if she might die. Eldritch looks at her in disbelief, but a deep-rooted relief is also in his wide, pale gaze. Shock fades into a warm welcome as Eldritch grins, "Perhaps they heard mine as well, Eldritch." She peered at his wagon, sniffing the air curiously and scenting blood beneath that gorgeous pelt. As her brother offered her a submissive bow, Lurid's tail rose to wave stiffly above her hips in her typical dominant fashion. "It would seem they were. I, for one, am glad of it." She said with a smile, and a dip of her own head, just slightly to acknowledge his bow.

When he rises, he closes the distance between them, Lurid allowing and welcoming his hug and returning the gesture with a great squeeze of her own. She had missed all of her siblings and hoped that one day they would be together again. Sitting there she held her smaller brother, reassuring him that she was in fact alive and well - sort of. When they finally parted, Eldritch explained what he had been through without prompting from Lurid. He knew she would want to know, and so he told her everything. Then he revealed what was beneath that perfect obsidian pelt. Eldritch knew of her dark appetite, so perhaps he wouldn't mind if she took one of the heart-shaped packages for herself. The moonlit goddess could use a snack. "One of those is for me, yes?" She asked him expectantly, licking her lips a little. He turned to her then, asking what happened to her.

Lurid pursed her lips, then relaxed them with a sigh. "I fell ill, brother. I disappeared because I couldn't let the pack or my family see me sick. Atropos caught me sneaking away and demanded that she go with me. With her knowledge of herbs and medicines, I would have been stupid not to keep her along. She fed me all sorts of nasty concoctions...She is lost as well. We must find her, Eldritch." She was stronger than ever now, however. This time they would move south, "Requiem and I are moving the family south. This is not the right climate for our Mirovis." Requiem had been the first wolf to find her, as was only fitting of their Haihefa, the Dread Father of the pack. Lurid knew her family had been shocked by her absence, and she had even disappeared away from Atropos. "Come, let us find our sisters and bring our family together once again." She gave him one more hug, then began to lead the way to the Soulless Forest.

Word count: 457 words. || "Talk." || 'Think.' || 'Hear.'

Note: ---

Swinging machetes in a crowded room;
And now I'm coming after you!

ART